The end-of-year festivities have long been a season of high returns for retailers, buoyed by the spending splurge that precedes Christmas and extends to the New Year sales.
The period of healthy profit margins has lately been stretched with the arrival of Black Friday on European shores. The US import makes no bones about coaxing consumers with generous discounts, inviting us to indulge in a fit of retail therapy with deals too good to miss. Whilst discerning shoppers are enticed with displays of quality or exclusivity the rest of the year, the dominant marketing mantra is now "Stack it high, sell it cheap".
Few can resist the pressure to jump on the Black Friday bandwagon and the revenue it brings. But not all businesses can afford the promotions that stop shoppers in their tracks and small independent stores often find themselves unable to keep up with the race to the bottom.
It's a concern well known to the Brussels region, which oversees an alternative publicity campaign that puts local retailers in the spotlight. Smaller vendors are given access to prominent advertisement panels and are publicised under the banner of "Local Friday", an alternative initiative that highlights the stores unique to the city, without which high streets risk becoming a homogenous stretch of international brands.
"I have a small shop and can't do such big reductions because the margin is so small," one concerned entrepreneur explains. "If you shop local, you help me live."
But with consumer confidence at such a low will the public look beyond the reduced price tags and spend responsibly?
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